My Personal Quest for Allyship and Challenging My Mind
“allyship is not an identity—it is a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people”
(http://www.missioalliance.org/allyship-three-jesus-inspired-ways-to-respond-to-the-election/)
It all started when we learned about cognitive heuristics in my Peace, Conflict and Justice class at the University of Toronto. Of course, I have been learning about stereotyping and bias since I was very young; the word "stereotype" has become a vernacular term used freely by any and all. Whenever the word came up in the past, I took it for granted. I assumed I knew what it meant, and thought of myself as someone actively working against it. That is, until this class shook my world.
Firstly, if you are wondering what cognitive heuristics are, here is a definition from cognitivealtas.org:
"simple, efficient rules, hard-coded by evolutionary processes or learned, which have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments, and solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information. These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic errors or cognitive biases."
The discussion went deeper into the world of cognitive heuristics and human biases than I had ever been before. As you can see from the definition above, cognitive heuristics are not inherently wrong. In fact, they help us survive on some level, because they allow us to make decisions despite not having complete information (which is, like, 99% of the time). The problem is that, more often than not, these judgements can be harmful.
Stereotypes, too, are not necessarily bad, even though they have a negative connotation in our society. They help us make judgements about people based on simple facts, and help us interpret situations that we have never encountered before so that we don’t make extremely idiotic decisions.
This brings me to my quest for becoming less ignorant. I have always thought of myself as someone who is not racist, who is open and welcoming to any type of person despite their outward appearance, and who overall “doesn’t judge.” What I have come to realize is that this is just straight up false. Whether I like it or not, I cannot change the fact that my brain naturally stereotypes and makes judgements all the time. The only true way to combat this is to face it head-on.
My goal is to have conversations with and listen to perspectives from a diversity of people as often as possible. I do not want to keep living my life in my little bubble of people who are similar to me—physically, socioeconomically, or otherwise. This is hard to do, because we naturally tend to group with people that are similar to us. I have recently noticed that I do this. I joined a sorority in my first year and, let us be honest, the girls there, while they possess a wide diversity of interests and skills, are more similar to me than not. Don’t get me wrong—I love my sisters in Alpha Phi! They are amazing, driven individuals with unique talents. What I am trying to say is that joining this was a comfort move. I was in a new city, at a huge new university, surrounded by people I did not know. My instinct was to join a group where I would fit in and thrive. I am so thankful that I did, because it really helped me adjust to my unfamiliar surroundings. Now, though, I am ready to broaden my horizons.
So, back to actively trying to counter my cognitive biases: I attended a conference last night called “I am human.” It consisted of a panel of individuals representing different communities, and they discussed their struggles with accesses public services. As a privileged white American individual, I feel I really benefitted from hearing about some of the struggles faced by Indigenous people, refugees, and women in poverty in Canada. Not only was I not familiar with some of the issues faced by these individuals, but I was not familiar with problems unique to Canada. Access to healthcare is no as idyllic as it has been portrayed by the Canadian government. It is often extremely difficult for refugees to get access.
(Taken from the One Nation, Two Worlds Facebook event page for panel: "I am human": https://www.facebook.com/events/744411355766884/)
The woman who represented the refugee community had recently come to Canada from Syria via Turkey, and her mother was diagnosed with Cancer. They had tried to receive her test results, but had to wait a minimum of three months to see if she was cancer-free. They still do not know and she has been here for over a year. Imagine the absolute stress the whole family has been faced with, on top of coming from a different culture and not knowing English. This made me realize that healthcare is a basic human right, and needs to be treated as such.
The Indigenous panelist, who was Nehiyaw-Finnish and Canadian, spoke of harmful stereotypes and cultural appropriation and ignorance she had experienced in her lifetime, which was often instigated by media and Canadian school curriculum. One man who was not Indigenous had been teaching the sacred tradition of Hoop Dancing in classroom settings, which is highly disrespectful to those who treasure it.
She also spoke to us about horrific living conditions of many Indigenous people. Many are sick, and again, do not have proper access to healthcare.
Up until fifty years ago, too, Indigenous people were not allowed to be represented by a lawyer in a court of law—how preposterous is that?!
One final thing she talked about that touched me was that many of the ideas used in forming the American democratic government were borrowed from Indigenous traditions. Instead of getting angry about this, though, the panelist suggested that we work to incorporate diverse perspectives in government. I love this idea.
The panel was very refreshing for me, and helped me really think about everyday decisions I make. In everything I do, especially in places where I serve as a leader, I want to work to be more actively inclusive. It will take effort and consideration, and will be well worth it! The conference rounded out by reminding us (in light of the title “I am human”), that we are all human. What I can do to help everyone remember this important idea, is I can work to be an ally for those societal minorities. I can expose myself to different cultures (one panelist suggested following people who represent minority communities on Twitter). I can sit back and listen when I need to. I can stand up and defend when necessary. I can lend a helping hand and learn to respect everyone despite our differences.
Thanks for reading all the way through this brain dump!
xx
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